Navigate:

Financial lobby stuck in holding pattern

Congress isn’t much interested in or able to push through most changes. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

“In 2012, we’ll be making the case for making changes to Dodd-Frank and the CFPB in 2013,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents the interests of the banking industry, as well as those of the securities, investments and insurance industries.

And although the broad financial, insurance and real estate sector remains a lobbying behemoth in the here and now, able to bring to bear hundreds of millions of dollars to directly lobby the federal government, its days of ever-increasing strength are over, at least for now.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Last year, for example, was the first time in more than a decade the sector’s lobbying spending actually dipped from the year before — a stark contrast with much of the 2000s, when year-over-year expenditure increases were measured in the tens of millions of dollars, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbying spending.

Within the broad FIRE sector, the securities and investment industry spent an annual record of $101.48 million in 2010 as Wall Street reform regulation raged in Congress. But during 2011, the center’s numbers show, the industry’s spending slid to $99.1 million.

Bank of America, which spent a yearly high of nearly $4.9 million on lobbying in 2008, spent $3.2 million in 2011, federal records show.

Citigroup had spent almost $8.5 million in 2007. By 2011, that was down to $5.47 million — about what it spent in 2002.

This is cold comfort to consumer advocates, however.

“The financial industry is still about the biggest lobbying force there is, and the ability for them to grow again is almost boundless,” said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy lobbyist for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division.

Even if Republicans were to sweep Congress and take back the White House in November — a dream scenario for many in the financial services industries — GOP lawmakers probably wouldn’t immediately roll back Dodd-Frank era changes and would most likely listen, at least to some extent, to the petitioning of consumer organizations, Naylor suggested.

“People look at what happened in 2008, and they don’t want it to happen again,” he said.

But Election Day remains months away, and in the meantime, consumer groups are resolved to protect their policy gains from the previous Congress.

“We have a lot of defensive priorities now,” said Lisa Donner, executive director for Americans for Financial Reform. “The reason we won some battles in the first place is that people are angry, angry at the recklessness and law breaking … that is responsible for economic devastation for millions of people. We want to remind the government of that.”

Let's change this thing and support our president who at least has tried to put them in check!

You are absolutely delusional. Obama has not tried to put Wall Street in check, he has been cashing their checks for the past 4+ years and they have gotten everything they paid for with TARP II, Dodd-Frank and a free pass from the Holder who should have put many of those responsible for the mortage meltdown in jail by now.

Obama recieved more campaign contributions from Wall Street than any Presidential Candidate in US History.

Better have Congress tied up than spending our money like water! Our entire country is in hot water because of dishonest budget practices because of many things, but principally the 1974 Budget Reform Act. This act allows each and every federal department automatic annual budget increases, some of them as high as 10%. Maybe all of them, I'm not certain. This is regardless of revenue, regardless of need, and certainly disconnected with any common sense in budgeting. Any increases given above the 10% are compounded in years following (that's happened often under Obama). Any proposed decrease from 10% to say 5% have the Democrats crying "Draconian cuts" even though that department will still get more money than the previous year. This disconnect from zero-based budgeting is why we're in such trouble financially! Read more at http://download.premiereradio.... A repeal passed the House of Representatives two weeks ago, but don't expect either the Senate or the media to jump on board. Call your senator, email, spread the word! There's a reason the GOP is so popular this year: it's the pledge to get our federal deficit under control that is at the bottom of that.

That and We literally can't afford more of Obama. Whoever the GOP nominee is gets my vote. The leftist media doesn't admit this, but the national debt has accelerated at an unprecedented rate under Obama, and it wasn't pretty to start with. It now EQUALS our entire ECONOMY. Reported in the UK, because the media here isn't honest enough to do so. This debt doesn't even count the fact that things like Obamacare won't add into the total debt until all parts of the law go into effect, and you can count on the fact that it will be much more expensive than projected, just like any other government program. To top off the horrible debt, all branches of the federal government get an automatic 10% increase in budget each year, based upon spending of the previous year. This is since the 1974 Budget Reform Act. It doesn't take a mathematician to realize this is unsustainable growth and will quickly turn us into the EU if we aren't already.

If any of this is news to you, consider your sources. You've got to read both sides to know what's going on anymore because both sides leave stuff out. There is no such thing as unbiased media.